Where are they?

Mobilization after mobilization, the demands regarding the disappearance of people in our country continue to remind us daily of this painful reality, which leads us to the worst realms of horror and human atrocity. We have spent many years trying to assimilate what is happening to us, and we have not been up to the task, either as a society or as a State that guarantees and protects the lives of its citizens. The figures are only a glimpse into a hell, which, if we were to explore it carefully and with open ears, would leave us breathless. The scale of the problem of the forced disappearance of people in our country overwhelms any adjective that attempts to describe it.

More than 121,651 people are waiting to be found by their families, which must be recognized as a humanitarian crisis. (Registry of Missing and Missing Persons, 2025).

They haven't returned home, they haven't been found, no one has seen them, and worst of all, they don't know if they're suffering, if they're still alive, if they're locked up, being tortured, or buried in a grave. Days go by, and even though meetings are being held with the Ministry of the Interior—at least six meetings with some groups of searchers across the country—time is running out, and this is what doesn't seem to concern the authorities much. No one objects to the fact that rethinking a search strategy and agreeing on a legal reform to address the problem is necessary, but every six-year term—if the problem isn't ignored—a process is restarted, which at this point shouldn't still have so many deficiencies and vulnerabilities, both in prevention measures, support, legal management, and field operations, to ensure not only that the phenomenon of disappearances doesn't continue to recur, but also to address the historical and current emergencies we're experiencing in terms of body identification and support for families. The challenge is harmonizing resources and capabilities; developing genuine coordination across the three levels of government and, above all, including members of these groups in shaping processes within institutions is a priority.

Thus, while the meetings are taking place, another horrific event is being revealed, stemming from the University of Guadalajara's report, released a few days ago, on the crisis of missing youth between the ages of 15 and 19 in the state. Thus, the phenomenon of forced disappearance is undergoing drastic transformations, with young men and women being targeted year after year. In many cases, the targets may be being recruited through deception to work for organized crime. The Strategic Mechanism for the Recruitment of Children and Adolescents by Criminal Groups and Organized Crime, of the Ministry of the Interior, reported that a higher number of cases of recruitment by criminal organizations had been detected in Baja California, Colima, Chihuahua, Mexico City, and the State of Mexico.

Thus, the disappearance of minors adds to this hell where, according to information from the Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons (RNPDNO), it was estimated that as of March 25 of this year, approximately 28 people between the ages of 0 and 17 were reported missing every day in the country through 2024. Thus, since records began, of the 112,579 minors reported missing, approximately 17,349 remain to be located as of March of this year, and, sadly, 1,054 minors have been found dead. This is the reality we live in, and if we don't begin to express outrage, cooperate, and demand more from our trenches, this monstrosity will continue to reproduce itself. Let's join forces, cooperate more to work as a community, support each other more, build alternatives for prevention and support... Let's be more supportive because what happens to some, happens to us all!